TEHRAN (IQNA) – A Europe-based rights group slammed the global community, particularly the UN and the EU, for hindering an independent probe into Myanmar’s crimes against Rohingya Muslims.

In a Friday interview with Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, Chairman of the European
Rohingya Council Hla Kyaw expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the
34th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which opened in Geneva on February
23 and will close on March 24, saying the EU, the UN and some other states
failed Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims at the event.

"The international community is so reluctant to support an international,
independent investigation committee to investigate Myanmar’s crimes against
humanity,” said chairman of the European Rohingya Council
Hla Kyaw in a Friday interview with Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.

"It is a crime against Rohingya people, a crime against humanity and it is a
slow-burning genocide,” he further underlined.

Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where Rohingya are mainly based, has been under a
military siege since October 2016 over a raid on a police post that was blamed
on Rohingya-linked militants. A four-month crackdown on the minority group has
seen some 75,000 Rohingya Muslims flee to Bangladesh.

UN investigators, who interviewed Rohingya escapees in neighboring
Bangladesh, have blamed Myanmar’s government forces for responding with a
campaign of murder, gang rape and arson that they say may amount to genocide.

In report last month, Reuters cited two UN officials dealing with refugees
fleeing violence as saying that some 1,000 Rohingya Muslims may have been
killed in Myanmar’s army crackdown on the minority group.

Kyaw further criticized the UN for supporting an investigation commission
established by Myanmar’s military "to investigate the very crimes committed by
the military.”

He also accused European governments of backing Myanmar’s authorities and
State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi for the sake of their economic and political
ties.

"They always give them [Myanmar]
space and time,” Kyaw said. "As a Rohingya organization we ask only one simple
question: ‘How long, how much more do we need to suffer? Until we are
eliminated from the soil of Arakan (former name of Rakhine State)? How much
time do you need?’”

The activist further said the
international community was expected at the Geneva event to unanimously agree
"to set up an independent international investigation to investigate these
crimes against humanity,” Kyaw emphasized.

He made the remarks a day after the
Advisory Commission on Rakhine, led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
released a draft report highlighting the need for initiating independent and
impartial investigations into widely-reported allegations of atrocities
committed by Myanmar’s military forces against the minority group.

The UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein as well as the UN special rapporteur on human
rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, recently called for the UN Human Rights Council
(UNHRC) to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the situation in Rakhine State.

On Monday, Yanghee Lee, theUN
special rapporteuronMyanmar, warned that the Southeast Asian
country may be seeking to "expel” all members of the Rohingya Muslim community
from its territory.